2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders thrills huge Boston crowd with call to fight racism and reform gun law [View all]sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)taken control of this government. The amount of suffering and heartbreak they have deliberately caused, and for the worst reasons, money and power, is more than just being a lousy human being. SOMETHING is wrong with such individuals and they should not be allowed to be in positions where, whatever their problems are, they can cause so much harm to so many people.
The family member I mentioned in the OP is a kind, thoughtful person however his condition causes and has caused him to have violent episodes where he could seriously harm others. Which is why we, his family, worked so hard to try to get him help in order to avoid such a tragedy.
I would not want him to be in possession of any weapons when he is going through such a period, and in fact, due to being arrested for an act of violence during one of those periods, he is legally unable to obtain one, thankfully.
After the episodes, he has little memory of what happened. Thankfully, we have been able to get him the help he needed but it took years of work and he had a loving family, unlike many others with his mental issues.
To aknowledge that some of the mentally ill can be violent, is NOT an insult to those who suffer from this illness, it is a fact. But in this country we do not have anywhere for family members to go in order to obtain the kind of treatment necessary to help their loved ones control such an illness.
Bernie is right when he says we must address this issue. I wish we had had resources available and still do, to help those who need them so badly, but we do not. The resources are very limited. That needs to change.